It’s my Golden birthday today, although I hear it’s called a ‘Champagne birthday’ in Canada, but Champagne tastes like dish soap. So anyway, let this be an open letter to my 24^th year: may it bring more sun, more music and more burritos. That’s all I ask. I threw together a mix, quite last minute, but no less fun. I hope you all enjoy.

Also, in lieu of a birthday present, I know, I know- you already got me one… But big news- I’m headed back to Invisible Children to work, hello non profit life! That being said, I need a little help in the food/survival department, so if you are so inclined, I’m accepting donations if you can spare an extra five bucks, that’d be rad.

Do you know how many burritos you can get for five dollars? Three and a half. For those of you who don’t know, I worked with Invisible Children over the past couple of years- touring colleges and highschools, working with artists, organizing tours, festivals, premieres, annoying the heck out of my friends and family to get involved, not sleeping, sleeping outside, dancing for Oprah, and doing all sorts of necessary bizarro stuff that Invisible Children pulls off so well. I honestly loved it and I credit it to so much of my character today. It has simply- changed me. So I’m delighted to return to continue doing music promotion, and finding neat ways to integrate wonderful artists into our mission.

If you’d like some more information on Invisible Children and the work that we do- check out this video and please don’t be shy, and write me at nada.alic@gmail.com. Thanks!

Tracklist

01 Birthday Party- Unouomedude
02 The Philosophy of Andy Warhol- Seamonster
03Up So Fast- Young Man
04 Neighbors- Now Now Every Children
05 Wasting Time- Reading Rainbow
06 Fingertips- Holy Spirits and Gem Club
07 Relate to You- Sweet Lights
08 Young Blood- The Naked and Famous
09 God Only Knows- Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.
10 History Of My Life- Blake Mills
11 Bathurst- Foxes in Fiction
12 He Would Have Laughed- Deerhunter
13 Eyesore- Women
14 I Do- Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s
15 Strange Things Happening Every Day- Sister Rosetta Tharpe
16 Watch Out, Sally!- Diane Renay
17 Dreams (Fleetwood Mac Cover)- The Morning Benders
18 Hot Hands- Splinters
19Two Eyes- Dada Trash Collage
20 Il Fait Beau- My Pet Saddle

DOWNLOAD THE MIX HERE:

http://www.mediafire.com/?e73h7vx24jcglb3

to donate:

paypal to nada.alic@gmail.com

Want to get creeped the fuck out for a week? Watch this video. This is a new video from Yoda’s House via Solid Melts.

The release is titled ‘Then Eats Them’ be available Oct 5th.  Full Color Art w/ Digital Download. First edition limited to 50 copies. Pre-Order now available - http://solidmelts.com/2010/09/18/pre-order-sm-012-yodas-house-then-eats-them/

Weird, so weird.

Sweet Lights – Message on the Wire (Original Edit) from Sweet Lights on Vimeo.

I like everything about Sweet Lights. A) All of his videos fucking rule. The one above is him breakdancing in the eighties, which I love because most of the 8mm home tapes people chop up these days aren’t even of themselves. Also, you must check out his tumblr for more videos, that are of the break-dancing variety, and also one bizarre take of what I assume is his cat. He’s seems to be fixed on childhood, specifically his own, when he was an awesome kid that liked to breakdance and be generally weird and boy-like. But his songs are anything but weird, they’re stunning. I cannot stop listening to his bandcamp album.

This Philadelphia-based musician Shai Halperin played with bands like War On Drugs and The Capitol Years and now plays under Sweet Lights. The tracks are all just perfect rock & roll, entirely nostalgic and gorgeously arranged. He doesn’t overdo it with the synth or reverb, he just does what he does very well, without all the fancy extras all of the bandcamp bands rely on these days. And Lord, that voice. If it were a flavour, it’d be something like caramel, soft and smooth. There’s a little bit of Neil Young in him and it’s entirely welcomed. If you haven’t heard of him yet, I don’t doubt that will soon change. Definitely one of my favorite finds of the autumn season.

Sweet Lights- Message on a Wire

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I have to admit, I was one of those kids that was pretty quiet, and didn’t like being around loud environments.  I was a shy kid, but that’s not why I like Shy Child. The Duo from New York plays  electronic dance and rock, which is always a great combination.  The synthesizers, drums, and singing just meld so perfectly together, and I feel really happy when listening to them.  Once again, it’s another band that has been around for almost eight years, and I found out about them just recently.  Back in March of 2010, these guys released their “Liquid Love LP” and I just had to have it.  Listen to Disconnected, and Open Up The Sky.  You won’t regret listening to this band.

- Kyle Knapp

Shy Child – Disconnected

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

When I went to Norway this past winter, I was talking to some family about music.  I professed, that I really dislike music between 1980 and 1990, with a few exceptions.  Well, one family member who spent his younger years in the 80′s, said that the British Pop scene was pretty good.  Now, I agree with him.  Recently I came across Ou Est Le Swimming Pool. No they aren’t from France, but Britain.  In fact, I hear a hint of Tears for Fears, A Flock of Seagulls, and Bronski Beats in their music.  Nice to finally hear British electro/pop make its way back into the mainstream.  These guys are awesome, and they are releasing their first album in the United States, on October 22nd, of 2010; “The Golden Years.”  I really enjoyed the songs Dance the Way I feel, Outside, Jackson’s Last Stand, and These New Knights.

In tragic news though, I found this.  On 20 August 2010, Charles Haddon, the lead singer of the band, died after a performance at Pukkelpop, Belgium. He is believed to have committed suicide by jumping from a telecommunications mast in the backstage artists’ parking area. Haddon was reported to have been distressed after he injured a female fan at the end of the Pukkelpop show after a stagedive.

They will be holding a concert for the late band mate, but we will see what happens to their first album in the States.  A heart felt condolence goes out to the band and anyone close to them.

- Kyle Knapp

Jackson’s Last Stand

Our Lives

One of my favorite finds of this summer: We Are Trees are releasing their Boyfriend EP on vinyl via Collective Crowd Records on Nov. 9th.

Oh and guess what, they’re also playing CMJ this year- there were talks of me going, but then I couldn’t, their performance is reason enough to get me bummed of my absense.

It’s going to be a good one this year. Anyway, I urge you to pick up this EP, if you’re a fan of Grizzly Bear, or if you’re a fan of being happy- you must grab it.

http://www.collectivecrowdrecords.com/store/we-are-trees-boyfriend-ep/

Oh Appalachia from Chad Hartigan on Vimeo.

“When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.”
- Henry David Thoreau

When you go to Seamonster’s bandcamp page, you’ll read this- then the music begins and you’ll understand why. I knew I immediately liked this band, because I whole self lit up with a certain joy that only rises out of my fingers when I hear something real and true. This doesn’t happen often, but when it does, well- I suppose that’s the reason why this blog started in the first place, I have a need to tell you about it, to hope that you could feel the same way. This dreamy experimental folk, borrows, or at least leans on the ancestry and mythology of Neutral Milk Hotel- a phenomenon in music that occured in a blip sometime ago in the nineties that left us all shattered, picking up the pieces for the years afterwards in hope of some kind of revival. Instead we learn from this kind of spiritual folk and create our own. That is Seamonster, an inexplicable endeavour that conjures the same kind of wonderful magic. With only five songs to offer, it’s still just enough to make you believe that the magic is still there. I hope to hear more from this band soon.

I don’t know if it’s just me, or if it’s my brief breath of air I’ve managed to take just days before my birthday, but I’m excited about music again. It’s alive, in a way.

Seamonster- Bearsuit

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Seamonster-New England

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

If there were any DIY music project I’m excited about, it’d be Love Lake. There are too many bandcamp pages to keep track, and whatever I find, I mostly think is rad for a day or so then move on. There’s no time on the internet to really become a fan of a band (or at least it’s really difficult) since everything comes in fragmented EPs and LPs and that’s it. But there’s something about Love Lake, the catchy pop songs that redeem Anders Carlson from the above, that make him absolutely stand out- and has me playing him in my room for weeks on end. I fucking love this record. Not only because it was all done by him, with some cheap equipment, instruments and his computer, but it manages to shift from 80s pop (Things U Did) to light reverb-soaked tracks, layering his harmonies to get that hearty textured sound, a little distortion but not too much that you can’t make out what he’s saying.

I don’t usually love pop music, but with this record, I’m beginning to think  that’s about to change. Hums is probably my favorite track, it’s got a little bit of that Mason Jennings style, but it could easily pass for a seventies radio jam like Ian Matthews or something. The first track I heard from Love Lake was ‘Curses’ and I thought it was so great I put it on my blog birthday mix. That being said, I highly suggest you buy his record right HERE.

Love Lake- Ghost

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

album artwork: Noah Smith of ‘Hard Mix‘

Sometime ago, I asked my friend Kevin Devine to make a mix for the series; he finally emerged with something of a ‘mega mix’ for the series. We entitled it ‘City of Brotherly Love’, because Kevin is a brother- in the most humble and human way. His last album, Brother’s Blood was a love letter of sorts, to us brothers (and sisters). Kevin is something of an old soul when it comes to music and according to his mix he’s likely been a loyal listener to some legendary bands for sometime now. I’ve been noticing an interesting trend with the series thus far, a) all of my guest mixers have phenomenal and thorough musical libraries and b) when asked to choose a collection of beloved songs, they almost always choose the artists they’ve coveted for years, the ones that made their mark on their personal story.

The beautiful mix you can grab below is characteristic of Kevin, himself. Over the years as a relentless touring artist he’s acquired a certain mythology around his own songs. To think of the mixes he himself resides in! We’ve had conversations about the immediacy and dissolve of newer music, but the timelessness of Kevin Devine and his masterful ‘goddamn band’ floats above that as one of the remaining few bands that managed to stay with us despite all the noise of bedroom projects and singer-songwriters. I see it as a testament to his own earnest songwriting, telling his own story like journal entries amidst greater injustices and the growing pains of being alive. So from Kevin to you, I joyfully offer this mixtape. Enjoy, friends.

ps- if you haven’t checked out his latest project with Manchester Orchestra, you’re nuts! what are you waiting for? www.myspace.com/badbooksmusic

tracklist

The Breeders – Little Fury
Neil Young – Don’t Cry No Tears
Hank Williams – Long Gone Lonesome Blues
David Bazan – Curse Your Branches
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Hysteric
The Smiths – I Want The One I Can’t Have
The Replacements – Bastards of Young
Nina Simone – I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free
John Lennon – Jealous Guy
Elliott Smith – Division Day
Phosphorescent – The Last Thing I Needed First Thing This Morning
Joanna Newsom – Sadie
Cass McCombs – City of Brotherly Love
Bob Dylan – Love MInus Zero (No Limit)
Leonard Cohen – Chelsea Hotel no. 2
Simon & Garfunkel – Bleecker St.
Sinead O’Connor – Black Boys on Mopeds
Sam Cooke – A Change Is Gonna Come
Cat Power – The Color & The Kids
Pavement – Gold Soundz
Red House Painters – Katy’s Song
Nada Surf – Always Love
Patsy Cline – Crazy
Neutral Milk Hotel – Two Headed Boy Pt. II

Download at the link below:

http://www.mediafire.com/?8whvv35bue3p3wt

Bad Books- You Wouldn’t Have to Ask

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Every few months or so, when I get the divine privelage of going to one of my favorite shows in the history of forever- David Bazan, I revel (and quietly laugh) at the fact that I give myself full permission for wildly exaggerated descriptions, gushing to no forseeable end as a public display of my love for the one and only. Yes, I realize it sounds about as juvenile as any Tiger Beat crush of my nineties childhood- but alas, there are differences! I swear it!

Let it be known, I’m not ‘in love’ with David Bazan, although I do have an affinity for men of the ‘never-gave-a-shit-about-what-I-looked-like-this-morning’ breed, I simply have an unimpenetrable attachment to that time in my life when I first discovered Bazan. Do you know what I mean? It means that when I go to a David Bazan show, I experience it vastly different than most people in the room, because with every old Pedro or Headphones song play, a buried memory of my past awakes in all it’s fury, with a certain clarity that no other photograph could quite match. That is why I love Bazan. He is the conjurer of these personal things, without him ever know (and let him never know, how embarrassing…). Maybe the man himself has nothing to do with it, maybe it just happened to be those records, at that specific time in my life. What makes his autumn shows that much more heartbreaking, is that I discovered him in these sleepy autumn seasons. I remember riding my bike down old paths listening to ‘Priests and Paramedics’ thinking a man could only ever write a song like that had he suffered something of a deep cut to the heart, you know- the real living kind. Continue Reading »